During commercial meat production, livestock carcasses are subjected to a number of slaughtering procedures that result in the dissection of an intact animal into a plurality of carcasses and meat products. In order to facilitate production, the carcasses may be attached to a trolley or shackle at different points along the meat processing line so that they may move quickly along the production line in a controlled manner. As they move through production, the carcasses are commonly tracked, identified and inspected at a number of locations, where certain information concerning the health or quality of the carcasses, and of the animals they are derived from, may be ascertained and recorded.
Livestock carcasses and meat products are tracked for a variety of reasons, including monitoring the efficiency of a meat production facility and the safe handling and processing of the carcasses and meat products. Meat producers have therefore instituted tracking systems in meat processing plants which utilize a unique identifier for each carcass that enters the meat processing line so that the carcass, and the meat products derived from it, may be tracked as they move along the processing line. The information collected may be used for a variety of purposes, including sorting carcasses before they are broken down into meat products for packaging and tracking carcass information back to the producer of the animal. The collection of information is not limited to the processing plant, but may also be ascertained at numerous locations within a feedlot, farm or ranch. In many instances, this information is collected and analyzed by hand, at a considerable cost to the collecting party, and the information is difficult to obtain in a consistent manner over time, as personnel changes, inconsistencies in training, and individual variations in the collection and presentation of information make consistent collection difficult.
By way of example, beef livers that are isolated as a meat product from carcasses are typically individually hand inspected by representatives of the United States Department of Agriculture along the meat processing line. During this inspection, the inspector is present in the processing plant so that each liver can be visually inspected and given a quality grade, which inspection may include observing a liver as it passes by and/or picking up a liver in order to view one or more sides. The inspector places one or more stamps on the liver, indicating the grade given, such as sufficient for human consumption (one stamp) or sufficient for animal consumption (two stamps), both of which are profitable grades as the liver may be processed and delivered for sale to consumers. The inspector may also grade a liver as inedible or condemned (three stamps), which represents a complete financial loss as all of these livers must be destroyed. A liver may be graded as inedible or condemned for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, the presence of abscesses resulting from a fast conversion to a high protein diet in advance of slaughter. While all condemned livers result in a financial loss, this type of condemned liver is of particular concern as they represent the vast majority of condemned livers, yet their condition is preventable in live animals prior to slaughter, via the use of commercially available drugs. If this type of liver is treated prior to slaughter, it may then represent a profit as it is more likely to be graded in such a way as to allow sale to consumers, rather than graded as condemned. There are several commercially available drugs that may be used to treat and prevent the presence of abscesses in beef livers that result from a fast conversion to a high protein diet in advance of slaughter, such as the antibiotic macrolide tylosin, among others.